Osterhout, Mildred (Fahrni)

  • From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: See full biography at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Fahrni
  • Wiki Biography:
    • Mildred Fahrni (1900-1992) was a Canadian pacifist and socialist, who became friends with Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. She was a leader of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Fahrni actively opposed World War II and the xenophobia that led to Japanese Canadian internment and the internment of Dukhobor children. She was an ardent feminist and social activist.
    • Mildred Osterhout was born in rural Manitoba on 2 January 1900 to Reverend Abram and Hattie Osterhout. Her family relocated to British Columbia in 1914. Between 1919 and 1923 she attended the University of British Columbia (UBC), earning a Bachelor of Arts in English and Philosophy. She went on to complete a Master’s in Philosophy in 1923, also at UBC. After her schooling, Osterhout began working as a secretary for both the Vancouver branch of the YMCA and the Canadian Memorial Church (CMC), but winning a scholarship to Bryn Mawr College, in 1930 she returned to school. At school in Pennsylvania, she met Muriel Lester and was invited to work for six months at Kingsley Hall in London. Serendipitously, Osterhout’s arrival in London corresponded with the Round Table Conferences on India’s independence. Mahatma Gandhi, who was attending the conferences, was also in residence at Kingsley Hall, and her meeting with him, changed the direction of Osterhout’s life.
    • In 1941, Osterhout married Walter Fahrni and began a tour across Canada lecturing on peace an opposition to Canadian involvement in World War II. Failing to dissuade involvement and opposed to the government’s xenophobia, Fahrni volunteered to teach without pay in the school at New Denver with Japanese Canadian internment detainees.
    • Throughout the 1940s and 1950s, Mildred traveled internationally for pacifist causes. 
    • In 1955, Fahrni traveled as a representative of the Fellowship of Reconciliation to Montgomery, Alabama to participate in the Montgomery bus boycott. An admirer of Martin Luther King Jr. because of his involvement with Gandhi, they became friends and carried on correspondence about social issues and pacifism for many years.
  • Fourth Great Granddaughter of United Empire Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory: https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=6581
  • Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/180093177/minnie_mildred-fahrni